Category Archives: climate

This blog tracks climate change, and attempts to translate the science of it into words that a layman (such as myself) can understand. It began in part because I realized that thoughtful reporting on this issue, which is as changeable and as complex as the winds that circle the globe, is just impossible on aContinue reading “Big Week in Climate Change”

From Japan’s largest newspaper, via Warm Planet, comes news that glaciers in the world’s highest peaks are melting. Here’s the lede and a touch of local color on this sad but unsurprising news. MEILI SNOW MOUNTAIN, China–The "rooftop of the world" is melting. Thanks to global warming, glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are rapidly liquefying,Continue reading “Rooftop of the World Melting”

Just came across a fascinating and busy international group site called WorldChanging; this post discusses C02 emissions not in terms of output per nations but in terms of output per $1000 GNP, and finds China to be vastly less efficient than the U.S. In 2003, for example, the chart shows that it takes about 9500Continue reading ““China Puts Out Way More C02 than Competitors…””

Via Jim Hoggan’s elegant DeSmogBlog.com in Canada comes this link to a series of charts from the National Center for Atmospheric Research projecting global temperatures in the 21st-century, using atmospheric CO2 as of the year 2000 as the base. Note that California is projected to warm by the year 2025 somewhat less than 3C…right aroundContinue reading “Don’t Let Your Children See This”

Believe it or not, earlier this week there were quite a few signs of hope from the United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Montreal, despite U.S. foot-dragging. One of the most encouraging signs was a group of young people who came and camped out and demonstrated at the conference, promising a generational commitment towards aContinue reading “If John Lennon Were Still Here…”

As readers of this blog probably know, nations of the world are currently meeting in Montreal to discuss climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, and what to do about the global problem when the largest emitter in the world, the U.S., refuses to act. "You are watching 163 nations do an elaborate dance to try toContinue reading “The Bush Plan: Futurgen”

As Thoreau put it: "What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?" As Toles put it:

I’m off to Thanksgiving at the relatives, but before I go I have to leave you with some potential good news. At Environmental Economics an interesting group of commentators is discussing an experiment in Canada that successfully injected 5 million tons of carbon dioxide into oil fields, simultaneously reducing CO2 emissons and greatly improving extraction.Continue reading “Too Good to be True? Apparently Not…”

Of the eight short essays on global warming from writers around the world collected in the fall quarterly Granta, probably the most thought-provoking, I’m proud to say, comes from novelist James Lasdun of the United States. He writes (in part): We’re not so far north here in the Catskills, but our first winters here, tenContinue reading “Two Apocalyptic Scenarios”

Javier Reverte, a Spanish writer, notes how the weather has changed in Madrid in his lifetime (excerpted from  Granta, translated by Amanda Hopkinson): Throughout my childhood, adults would repeat ancient verses–all about the seasons–which, with remarkable frequency, would coincide with the actual forecasts made. "In January, a dog seeks out the shade" (frequent sunny spellsContinue reading “The Weather Where We Are: Spain”